Ireland Day 5 – Ring of Kerry

Today was a long day. We started off at 8.30, after a 7.30 breakfast (which was not as good as at the Stillorgan, I thought). Today I had two fully charged camera batteries! And they were necessary!

First stop was shopping at Moriarty’s. I refrained from buying a thick jumper yesterday since I’d have no use for it at home, but it was so cold this morning, I thought I might as well buy one, even if it’s just for here and Great Britain. I’m sure it will be just as cold in Scotland, if not more so as it gets later in the year. The jumper I found was half price, at 60 Euro, which I thought was pretty good. It wasn’t even made in China!

The scenery today was pretty spectacular. However, the water views were all on the right side of the bus, while I sat on the left today. Instead I got some nice pictures of mountains and trees and rocks…:

We drove past the Oghan Standing Stones – I was quick enough to jump to the other side of the bus and hit the trigger to get a photo of them:

 

Next, we drove through Stillorgan and its pretty bridge:

Next actual stop was the Kerry Bog Village, which charged 5 Euro admission. I’ve always wanted to see and smell ‘bog’ so I went in for a look (and smell). One of the houses had a fire lit, and the bedroom air was thick with smoke, though the fire was in the other room. The bog was stored by the side of the house after being cut in the spring, so it would be dry by winter. The stuff is really light, even though it looks like a clod of earth. It smelt nice, burning, but still – can’t have been good for the lungs!

Then it was off in the direction of Kells (not the one famous for the ‘book of’) for some sheep dog trials, and beautiful views of Dingle Bay, past ruins on the fields. Apparently the reason for the abundance of ruins is that they’re from the time of the Great Famine (1845-1848) and people leave the abandoned houses as a mark of respect. The population of Ireland before the famine was about 8 million. Now it’s only around 4.5 million – people being lost to famine and immigration.

This rugged landscape was between Killorgan and Kells:

 

The Sheep Dog Trials were next, but this was nothing I hadn’t seen before, though the shepherd did make it amusing and introduced several varieties of sheep to us, including the ones with 4 horns instead of 2. Then it was onwards towards Port Magee, driving along the lakes (though on the wrong side of the bus for me!). Port Magee was a pretty colourful town which we didn’t actually pass through but photographed from the other side of the lake at the Skellig Experience. This ‘experience’ was probably the biggest let-down of the tour. It was nothing but a video documentary about the monks living at Skellig Michael (a little island not even visible from the ‘experience’ site) and the ruins that are now all but inaccessible. But the scenery around here was worth the visit. Just don’t pay for the ‘experience’!:

Then it was time to head off towards Scariff and O’Carrolls Cove:

The scenery around here is just spectacular, and we got this view for lunch at very reasonable prices too:

Next stop was Sneems. This was basically a stop for good ice cream. Since I don’t eat ice cream, I went for a wander around to photograph places in town instead, like the river and the church:

After this we headed through Moll’s Gap, back towards Killarney. This is rather a tight winding road along here, but the scenery is very rugged and beautiful:

The roads were so tight, that before we knew it, some guy in a campervan had smashed the side of the bus right by Betty’s window. It gave her quite a fright, and of course it held up the works (and all the traffic on both sides of the road!) for quite a while during which Dave looked like he was getting into a bit of a disagreement with the driver of the camper. But there was only damage to the bus and no people, so all was well. We got a new bus the next day so it was like nothing happened.

We headed on to Lady’s View for a view of the Lakes of Killarney:

Now it was just a matter of getting back to Killarney via Muckross House (also in Killarney), as we were running a bit behind with the accident and all. The next pictures shows a little of how tight the roads were, and how much it was worth it:

 

Muckross House was quite a nice building (though I didn’t go inside), but the gardens, while extensive and pretty, were nothing extraordinarily beautiful:

     

After this we headed back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner, Cathy took me for a walk around town so I could take some photos until it got too dark. While we were wandering the back-streets, we heard a piteous miaowing coming from under the car, so we investigated. The cat came bounding up to us and wound around our legs and demanded petting and miaowed its little heart out. We continued on up the cul-de-sac and it kept following us and following us. When we turned around and it kept following us, we started to become concerned for it. But it finally stayed away after we told it to go home a few times, thank goodness!

Then we dropped into a pub for a quiet Guiness before I headed back to the hotel for some quiet time with my photos and blog and pack my suitcase for the next (and final) day. 

Ireland Day 4 – Dublin to Killarney

It was an early morning today – 6am to wake up and then pack my suitcase to have outside by 6.45. After my late night, I thought I might have difficulty, but that wasn’t the case. I was ready for breakfast at 7 and then the tour left at 8am, heading south.

The drive was through countryside that looked like a patchwork-quilt for most of the north east. The beginning was very much motorways (one was only opened 2 weeks ago and is a toll-road), so the ride was smooth. Later in the day, the main roads were more like country lanes and we were held up quite a bit in a traffic jam caused by a funeral! The dead person must have been very popular because  it looked like the whole village had turned up for it.

There were a lot of ‘round-houses’, or ruins thereof, along the road. Apparently they were called 10 Pound houses at one stage, because you could buy them for that much if you built around it, and there were some hotels etc that did integrate these ruins into the building. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a photo of these from the moving bus. This one was between Dublin and our pit-stop in Urlingford.

The next stop was at the Rock of Cashel, which was a castle for various Kings:

We drove through more beautiful countryside, and through Cork, to get to Blarney and its castle.The one where you kiss the Blarney Stone to get the ‘gift of the gab’, otherwise known as eloquence. I didn’t bother going to the top to do this, lying down on my back and standing in line and so forth. Also the final bit of staircase was really tight and people were queued down the stairs. I climbed over the railing to go back down, thanks very much!:

I walked around the town after being told that stuff is much cheaper there than at the Woollen Mills where we were parked. I didn’t buy anything though. I went to the Woollen Mills, since I still had nearly an hour to kill, and the shop there was huge and fantastic, and not very expensive at all! I could’ve happily bought something there if I didn’t think it was a waste of money since I could never wear it back home. Beautiful jumpers and scarves, made of wool and made in Ireland (not China!) for under $100 (about 60 Euro), in lots of different colours and styles…just lovely. But I managed to walk away (albeit slowly) without spending up.

We then drove through the Lee Valley and past Macroom Castle (too slow on the trigger there to get a good shot out the bus window), before heading into Killarney and our hotel, The Malton. The hotel is just wonderful! It’s really classy.

It had started raining a little, but we went on jaunting carts (horse and buggy) to Ross Castle. This was not included in the price of the tour, but cost 14 Euro. It was worth it though – our driver, Billy, was an outrageous flirt and hilarious too. Fortunately for him, there was only one man in our cart, so Billy had a good time chatting us all up. The cart took us through the Killarney National Park, past the church and out to Ross Castle before returning along the road back to the hotel. Unfortunately, my spare camera battery had failed to charge the night before, so I had to resort to my phone camera for these photos:

I grabbed the time I had before dinner to do some washing, since I had done none this trip. Fortunately the room has towel heating, so a good place to dry undies :-). Then it was time for dinner at the hotel. The food is fantastic and included in the tour. The not so nice thing at the hotel is that I’m in a room right near the ‘family fun room’ which was quite busy and loud with screaming kids til about 10pm. And since the room is on the ground floor, it seems a lot of people use the corridor as a thoroughfare. I still managed to sleep fine though!

Ireland Day 3 – Dublin

This morning I got up a bit later for an 8am breakfast and then to meet my tour guide for a ride into town. I was the only one on the bus (again) and the driver seemed to know all about me and my plans. The irish do seem to like a chat :-). I had Dave drop me off in town at St Stephen’s Green and we arranged to meet at the castle where I would join up with the rest of the tour group to tour the castle.

Today went a little more to plan than yesterday, except for the fact that St Stephen’s Park didn’t actually open til 9.30, so I had just over half an hour to kill. The streets were deserted so I had plenty of good photo opportunities for various buildings around the park without buses and cars in the way. This changed later in the day when I couldn’t photograph some buildings for the buses in front of them…

The Royal College of Surgeons, Newman University Church wedged in between buildings to the left and right, and the tower floating above but looking quite magnificent inside:

After dawdling along here the park was finally open, so I went in. Near the entrance is this statue presented by the German people in gratitude to the Irish for their help with the children after WWII, and near one exit is the Famine grouping of statues:

 

After this, I headed in the direction of Merrion Square. I was waiting at the lights with my map out and a nice woman asked me if I needed help. I didn’t really, but explained where I wanted to go and we had a little chat, as you do. She was from Perth and had been here for 7 weeks and wanted to go home today or tomorrow because she was homesick, even though her visa was for one year!

Along the way, on Merrion Street Upper was this gorgeous set of structures with beautiful cast iron gates. They’re marked on the map as government buildings:

The streets around Merrion Square were mainly Georgian with the lovely brightly coloured big doors. At the end of the street, was St Stephen’s church, beyond which was the Grand Canal.

  

Beyond the church lies the Grand Canal:

I walked back to Merrion Square which was, by now, being surrounded by artists hawking their wares on the fence all around the park. I was about to take a picture of some paintings I liked quite a bit, but was politely told off. Further down the street I was admiring someone else’s work and got involved in a long conversation about the artist (the wife of the fellow trying to hawk her wares) about the paintings she’s sold to Australia, on commission and also people buying from the market (I assume). Apparently his grandson has just created a website for his gran to sell her stuff online too. This is not her stuff, but I liked it quite a lot:

When I finally got into the park, after the impromptu art gallery visit outside, I took the obligatory photo of the Oscar Wilde  statue on the rock. It seems to be quite popular, though I did hear one homophobe saying how he’s not taking a photo of that guy. I quite liked the statue, which seemed to be about life-size, done in different coloured marble:

Kildare Street on which was Leinster House etc, though it was covered in scaffolding, was next. However, the gate was quite magnificent. I also photographed some other pretty buildings along Kildare Street:

St Stephen’s Green north, facing St Stephen’s Green has some wonderful buildings on it, including these ones:

Next up was The Book of Kells at Trinity College. This was not allowed to be photographed, unfortunately. I bought some postcards though, which I will scan in when I get home. I had my croissant and muffin, thieved from the hotel breakfast, in leisure sitting on the bench at the University, pretending I was a student. The sun was shining, so it was very nice :-).

Then it was time to head towards Dublin Castle where I was to meet my tour group. I had plenty of time, so I thought I’d wander through Temple Bar on the way. I came across this shop advertising its beautiful and brightly coloured adult and fetish ware, followed by my last solo stop, being City Hall:

Here I sat and waited for my tour to show up at 2.45pm. They were quite punctual and I was soon one of a crowd of 41 people walking through the Royal State Apartments at Dublin Castle. Strangely enough, we were allowed to take photos. Probably because nothing is all that old, since the castle was burnt down and rebuilt less than 200 years ago. The magnificent chandeliers are all Waterford Crystal, of course:

After the tour, it was back on the bus to do a bit of a tour of Dublin. We stopped for a 5 minute ‘photo-opp’ at St Patrick’s Cathedral and drove past Christ Church Cathedral. Then we drove out to the old port, past a beautiful Customs House, which I will have to come back to photograph (same as the Cathedrals), since the bus didn’t stop. We did stop for another ‘photo-opp’ at the famine statue on the side of the Liffey, not too far from O’Connel Street. These are similar (probably same artist) as the ones at St Stephen’s Green.

We got back to the hotel about 5pm and had to meet for the bus to our dinner and show at 6.30pm. I had a bit of a break to catch up on my photos and blog (though I didn’t manage to finish catching up!) and then got ready to go out. We took off, up the ‘mountain’ to The Merry Ploughboy Inn where we had an OK meal and one free drink included in the price of the tour. The entertainment was really quite entertaining. The band was great fun. The dancers were also good – especially the men doing the tap dancing which sounded a lot like the Riverdance:

The whole thing got us back to the hotel by about 11.30. Which is when I sat down and quickly labelled all my pictures from the day, so that I wouldn’t forget what was what. I’ll leave the editing for at home, and the geo-tagging for when I have some spare time – either on tour or at home. Finally got to bed around 1am…ready for the early start requiring all bags to be out front by 6.45am. Lovely.

Ireland Day 2 - Dublin

I had the day to myself in Dublin and spent the morning until 10 planning my day (which went mostly nothing like the plan). There was a shuttle bus to the Dublin Bus Hop-on-Hop-off bus that picked me up at the hotel at 10.20 (theoretically, more like 10.35, but that was OK) and took me along the seaside to pick up at another hotel before heading into town to drop me off for the Dublin bus. The driver was very nice and told me where to sit to get the best views etc (I was the only one on the double-decker bus!) so I took a few photos, though most of them aren’t terribly good, since the bus was in motion.

Then I hopped on the Dublin Bus at St Stephen’s Green and took the ride to the Guiness Storehouse, since I had a voucher for that too. The exhibit was interesting enough, especially the ads where were funny. We got a free taste (1/3 of a glass) about half way through, and then the Gravity bar at the top had fantastic views across Dublin, but was also quite crowded. Possibly because this is where you get the free pint of Guiness. I only drank about a third of mine, because I wanted to be able to continue my sight-seeing, and drinking a Guiness takes time :-).

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for a few photos around the Guiness factory and then hop back on the bus for town centre where I intended to check out the Moore St markets. When I got to the bus stop though, I discovered that I could do a free guided tour of Dublin’s Highlights from here. I joined that instead and we wandered down O’Connel Street, along Bachelor’s Walk, through Temple Bar and then towards Trinity College where the 1 hour tour ended 2 1/2 hours later. It was really good and the guide was quite entertaining.

The GPO on O’Connel Street:

  Temple Bar:

Trinity College:

The guide told us that his brother and all of his three children attended the college and loved it. I think it has nothing on Oxford, but then that institution is much older.

After this, I meandered along back down O’Connel Street and found a few stalls were still there at the Moore Street markets, selling 1kg of pears or bananas for 1 Euro. Tempting, but I’d be throwing most of them away.

After passing through the markets, I decided to head in the direction of the Rotunda (which I didn’t find) and see what I can see out on the north-side of the city centre. I passed some pretty Georgian houses, mostly used as offices:

The lovely Abbey Church:

The Dublin Writer’s Museum, Dublin Gallery, the un-named Black Church with weeds growing out of the spire, and the Dominican Friary:

Then back down towards the shopping streets and Jervis Street in search of dinner, which I finally found at Lott’s at Liffey Street Lower. It was an interesting Dublin Coddle. Whether it’s just something for tourists, I don’t know, but it was nice, if salty:

I had some time before I needed to get the bus back to the hotel, and since it was a beautiful night, I thought I’d go check out St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, so I could get that side of town mostly ticked off:

And since I was already there, Tyrone House (now the Dept of Education) was just across the road, but since it was mostly in shadow, I didn’t get any decent photos. Then I headed back down the shopping street from the other side, down towards O’Connel Street and encountered this dude (James Joyce) before hopping on the bus back to the hotel for a decent night’s work prepping photos and writing this blog:

Only it took me all my spare time the next day as well…it’s going to be hard to stay on top of it, I can tell!

Ireland Day 1

My interim stay in Frankfurt was great. The weather was quite nice for some of it and I got to cuddle and play with cute babies and spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

After a reasonably early night in Frankfurt, it was an early start this morning to pack, have a last wonderful brekky with the family and get to the airport. I had to be at the airport 2.5 hours before the flight. As it turned out, it meant I wasn’t too worried when I got to almost the start of the queue and the hall was closed down because someone had left a plastic bag unattended. Call for the bomb-squad etc and 20 minutes later it was as if nothing had ever happened. Only that I lost my place in the queue and had to line up again….at least I could keep myself entertained with my smart-phone. Especially since the flight was then delayed by almost an hour… Fortunately, it didn’t matter what time I arrived here so I was relaxed about it all.

The Aircoach trip from the airport to the hotel went without a hitch (except it cost 8 Euro, not 7 as advertised all over the internet), and I was the only passenger for the last section, since the hotel is a fair way out. The bus driver was very nice and we had a bit of a chat. He could place my accent straight away. I remember thinking that they must have a lot of Aussies come here. I found out the real reason later…

I arrived at the hotel. The staff were very nice and helpful, though I had to really concentrate to understand them. My single room is quite roomy and nice: I tested out wifi (free) and it works OK on my netbook, but not so well with my mobile, which is a damn shame. I decided to look into getting a SIM card for my mobile but the only shop in the area was Vodaphone and I wasn’t too keen on their pre-paid deal: 10 Euro for the SIM card, plus 30 Euro for 1 GB data plus voice & sms free to Vodaphone in Ireland. Since I know nobody here, that would be pretty useless. So I might research this some more or not worry about it all. I’ve always managed to travel OK without it, after all.

This did take me to the local shopping centre, however, and it wasn’t so different to our smaller shopping centres back home.

I saw a few restaurants on a smaller side street and decided to have a look so I’d know where to go for dinner. There was a nice reed-bedecked pub which I had to photograph (of course) and then had my obligatory Guiness there. It went straight to my head – possibly because I’d eaten nothing but an apple since breakfast.

By this time it was late enough to have an early dinner and I’d seen a pizza place up the road a little way, so decided to have the 7” special for 5 Euro. It was actually quite nice, so I was pretty pleased with that. I decided to eat it on site, rather than carry it back to the hotel. It was like being back home: Neighbours was playing on TV with all its glorious Strine. No wonder the bus driver guessed.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel, though not without taking a couple of photos of nice houses on the way back. Looking at the Mercedes in the driveway of a couple of them, these houses are not everyman’s.

Anyway…time for a bit of planning for tomorrow.